Work Less, Make More

Is it possible to work less hours and make more money?

Business owners usually begin their journey wanting to gain more freedom and flexibility for their lives. They also see the potential to earn life-changing sums of money that could break generational cycles of struggle. The thing I love most about the women business owners is that for most… the more money they make, the more generous they are! However… when you’re in the first few years of business… it’s easy to fall into a mindset that limits both time and money. 

In this article, I’m going to explain how you can move from Solo Entrepreneur to Established CEO. By moving into this new role of CEO, you can find freedom and flexibility along with more profits. It is possible to work less hours AND make more money. Scroll to the bottom of this article to snag our free workbook that guides you through this Work Less, Make More Challenge!

Here’s how to Work Less Hours and Make More Money:

Step 1: Change the way you look at your time. 

Perception and mindset are crucial in making this shift. In order to do this, you need to do the following steps:

1. Write down all the tasks that you are currently doing in your business. Even the mundane tasks that don’t feel noteworthy. 
2. Now, write down all of the responsibility tasks that you are currently doing in your life repeatedly each week. Laundry. Cooking. Cleaning. Grocery shopping, etc. These are usually productive tasks that help you get from week to week. 
3. Identify your zone of genius + what tasks that only you can only do because you’re genius at it or because you feel that it’s something only the CEO can do. Note: This should be a very small list. 
4. Go through ALL the tasks you’ve written down and highlight which of those tasks increase your revenue or bottom line. I suggest utilizing a green highlighter if you have one. 
5. Looking at what you’ve just completed, are there tasks that are highlighted as income generating that are ALSO in your zone of genius? Perfect! These are the tasks that we are going to focus on in Step 2. 
6. Are there tasks that are highlighted as income generating that are NOT in your zone of genius? We will use these tasks in Step 3. 
7. With all the remaining tasks that you’ve written down, which tasks could be automated with a system or delegated to someone else? Don’t worry about financial burden just yet. Do this step as if money isn’t a factor.
8. Break-down the amount of hours you’re spending doing each task. For example, if you spend 1-hour per day clearing your inbox… write down 1-hour for that task. If you spend 3-hours per week cleaning your home, then write down 3-hours for that task. 
9. Now, calculate your hourly rate. My general rule of thumb is that an entrepreneur should charge no less than $40 per hour because after overhead costs and taxes… you’re about at $25/hour. If you’re unsure what your hourly rate should be… do some research. This is extremely valuable to know and helpful when making decisions as the CEO of your company. I personally calculate my time at $150 per hour while knowing that my true take-home rate would be around $95/hour after all costs are associated with what I do. What is your time worth? I know many you have set their personal hourly rate at $250 per hour because anything less would not be worth the stress to them. This is really a subjective rate, but it matters! 
10. Take your hourly rate and multiple it by the number of hours at each task. This means if you spend 1-hour per day clearing your inbox and your hourly rate is $150 per hour… then you just spent $150 per hour cleaning your inbox. If you spent 2-hours doing laundry today… then you essentially spent $300 on your laundry service. If you spent 3-hours cleaning your house this week and your hourly rate is $150 per hour… then you just spent $450 on a house cleaning. Sounds astronomical, right? Is this process starting to make sense? 

I realize that this isn’t what you are truly paying out. However, this is the mindset you want when it comes to managing your time. Essentially, you’re using this process to determine which tasks you’re over paying for. What’s the value of a laundry service? A housekeeper? What’s the value of a VA who can manage your inbox?

Step 2: Replace some of your non-genius work with genius work. 

For example, let’s say that you’ve decided that you’re no longer going to clean your own home. Instead, you’re going to replace 3-hours of house cleaning with 3-hours of client work. You’ll then sub-out your house cleaning for $125 (or force your hubby + kids to chip in for free!). Chances are… you’re going to come out with positive cash flow. I’m not sure how much you enjoy cleaning home, but I’d rather coach clients than I would scrub the toilets! ;P 

However… this isn’t our true end goal. We actually want to work LESS hours while making more money. Not work the same amount of hours as before. 

There is a 3:1 rule with this method. For every three hours you cut, you must replace one hour with NON-WORK. The other two hours should be genius zone work that earns money!

Let’s break this down practically.  

3-Hours House Cleaning earns you $0 in your business & takes away time from working on the business

Hiring a house cleaning company to clean your house each week costs about $125/week

This gives you 2-Hours for Genius Work @ $150 per hour = $300 new revenue

Previous Revenue: $0 

New Revenue: $300 

Previous Time Invested: 3-Hours

New Time Invested: 2-Hours

Work 1-hour less and make $300 more. Making more sense now? 

Step 3: Give your income-generating tasks to someone else. 

Let’s go back to the income generating tasks that do not fall within your “zone of genius.” These are tasks that could be delegated to someone else and also directly impact your bottom line. If you have NOTHING written here, then WARNING… I’m probably going to hurt your feelings with the next paragraph. 

Technically speaking, every task outside of casting the vision for your business could be delegated. It doesn’t all have to be delegated, but it definitely could be. Don’t believe me? Think about it… Designers can hire other designers. Coaches can hire other coaches. CEOs can hire CFOs, CMOs, Presidents, etc. You don’t have to be an agency model to embrace this idea. You simply need to grasp onto the idea that most things you do could be delegated to someone else. They can have similar values, learn your processes, and perform based on your instruction. We call this an employee. This may sound weird… but not every professional in your field wants to own their own business. Some just want to wake up and do the work assigned. They don’t want to sell, budget, plan, generate leads, market, etc. They just want to work. 

The beauty of you being the CEO of your company: you get to decide which tasks are going to remain in your full control. You decide this by determining which tasks bring you the greatest joy and fulfillment in your every day life. These are the tasks, of course, you want to embrace. Keep in mind… our feelings of what brings us joy may change from season to season! Evaluate this annually. 

Now, back to what to do in this step. Looking at the income generating tasks that do not fall within your zone of genius and do not bring you great fulfillment… what would it cost for you to hire a dedicated team member to do these tasks for you? Compare that cost with your hourly rate. If hiring someone cost you 30% or less than your hourly rate… then this would be a task to consider outsourcing to someone else.

Let’s say that you’re an accountant and you want to cut back on the hours you’re spending doing client bookkeeping. However, you cannot afford to cut back your personal income. Your solution is to hire a dedicated team member to work full-time doing accounting work while you spend 2/3rd of the time generating sales for the business. The other 1/3rd of your time will be left for you to spend as you please. 

You were working 30 hours per week on client work @ hourly rate of $85.00 / hour

You hire someone to work 30 hours per week @ $25.00 / hour cost. Your customer billing rate does not go down. If anything, you may increase it by $5 per hour. 

You’ve increased your cost by $750 per week, but you’ve freed up 30 hours of your time (which actually saves you $1800)

You then take those 30 hours and apply the 3:1 rule. For 20 hours… you’ll do money-making, zone of genius tasks. The last 10 hours will be for your personal use! 

Let’s say that the 20 hours of genius work earns you another $85.00 /hour. 

You now have $1700 – $1850 more revenue coming in and you’re working 10 less hours than before. 

Previous Revenue: $2550/week

New Revenue: $4250 – $4400 /week

Previous Time Invested: 30-Hours/week

New Time Invested: 20-Hours /week 

Work 10-hours less and make $1850 more.

Step 4: Work Less, Make More, Rinse, and Repeat. 

The real freedom and money comes when you scale this plan. The more team members you have performing tasks that directly increase your bottom line… the more sales your business can withstand. Your job as the CEO will most likely switch to being more focused on sales, leadership, and vision casting. You can eventually hire someone to sell for you and possibly even lead your team. But, baby steps… okay? Start with step one of this Work Less, Make More Challenge above and let me know how you do. 

I’ve watched solo entrepreneurs take this challenge and turn their life around to only working very few hours while increasing their bottom line tremendously. In fact, this is how generational and life-changing wealth begins. If you can embrace this thinking… then you can truly begin to step into your CEO role and your fullest potential.